1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an editing apparatus, an editing method, and a program, and particularly relates to an editing apparatus, an editing method, and a program, whereby consistency of electronic marks indicating the characteristics of a video can be completely ensured before and after editing of the video.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, linear editing such as Assemble Edit and Insert Edit has been performed with editing apparatuses.
Now, linear editing will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A through 1C.
In FIGS. 1A through 1C, let us say that data obtained by shooting video (including acquisition of audio) is being edited in increments of clips. Note that the term “clip” refers to, for example, video data obtained by shooting video one time (the processing of shooting video from the start of shooting to the end of shooting), and the audio data accompanying the video data. Also, in the following description, a clip #i represents a clip assigned i as a UMID (Unique Material Identifier). While the UMID assigned to the clips in the following description will be one- or two-digit numbers for the sake of facilitating description, an actual UMID is a number created based on a method stipulated in the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) 330M standard.
First, Assemble Edit will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.
Assemble Edit is editing wherein a sub-clip, which is a section of data of a clip to be used for editing, is added to another clip.
As shown in FIG. 1A, let us say that a user specifies a section of a clip #2 to be taken as a sub-clip #2, and specifies the end position of a clip #1 which is the start position of the editing section to serve as an in point. In this case, the editing apparatus performs Assemble Edit wherein the sub-clip #2, which is data of a predetermined section of the clip #2, is added to the entirety of clip #1. Accordingly, following data from the start to the end of the clip #1, data from the start to the end of the sub-clip #2 is recorded.
Also, as shown in FIG. 1B, let us say that a user specifies a section of the clip #2 to be taken as the sub-clip #2, and specifies the a desired position of the clip #1 to serve as the start position of the editing section. In this case, in the event that a position on the clip #1 corresponding to the end position of the sub-clip #2 does not exist between the start position to the end position of the clip #1, the editing apparatus performs Assemble Edit wherein the sub-clip #2 is added to a part of the clip #1. Accordingly, following data from the start to the in point of the clip #1, data from the start to the end of the sub-clip #2 is recorded.
Next, Insert Edit will be described with reference to FIG. 1C.
Insert Edit is editing wherein a sub-clip of one clip is inserted into another clip by overwriting.
As shown in FIG. 1C, let us say that a user specifies a section of the clip #2 to be taken as the sub-clip #2, and specifies a desired position of the clip #1 to serve as the start position of the editing section. In this case, in the event that a position on the clip #1 corresponding to the end position of the sub-clip #2 exists between the start position to the end position of the clip #1, the editing apparatus performs Insert Edit wherein the sub-clip #2 is inserted to the clip #1. Accordingly, data from the in point of the clip #1 is overwritten by the data from the start to the end of the sub-clip #2. That is to say, data from the start to the end of the sub-clip #2 is inserted in a section from the in point of the clip #1 to a position therefrom by a distance equivalent to the length of the sub-clip #2.
Next, description will be made regarding editing processing wherein the editing apparatus performs the Assemble Edit or Insert Edit described with reference to FIGS. 1A through 1C.
In step S1, the editing apparatus takes data of a section of clip #2, which the user desires, as a sub-clip #2, and the flow proceeds to step S2.
In step S2, the editing apparatus determines an in point based on a position within the clip #1 specified by the ser as the in point, and the flow proceeds to step S3.
In step S3, the editing apparatus determines whether or not the in point is the end position of the clip #1, i.e., whether or not the sub-clip #2 is to be subjected to Assemble Edit to the entirety of the clip #1. In the event that determination is made that the in point is the end position of the clip #1, the flow proceeds to step S4.
In step S4, the editing apparatus adds the sub-clip #2 to the clip #1. That is to say, the editing apparatus records the data from the start to the end of the sub-clip #2, following the data from the start to the end of the clip #1. Thus, the editing apparatus performs the Assemble Edit for adding the sub-clip #2 to the entirety of the clip #1 as shown in FIG. 1A, by performing the processing of steps S1 through S4.
In step S3, in the event that determination is made that the in point is not the end position of the clip #1, the flow proceeds to step S5, where the editing apparatus determines whether or not a position on the clip #1 corresponding to the end position of the sub-clip #2 exists between the start position to the end position of the clip #1, i.e., whether or not to perform Insert Edit.
In the event that determination is made in step S5 that the position on the clip #1 corresponding to the end position of the sub-clip #2 does not exist between the start position to the end position of the clip #1, the flow proceeds to step S6, where the editing apparatus deletes the data of the clip #1 from the in point to the end position, and proceeds to the above-described step S4. In step S4, the editing apparatus adds the sub-clip #2 to the clip #1. Consequently, data from the start to the end of the sub-clip #2 is recorded following data from the start to the in point of the clip #1 following deletion.
Thus, the editing apparatus performs Assemble Edit wherein the sub-clip #2 is added to a part of the clip #1 as shown in FIG. 1B, by performing the processing of steps S1, S2, S3, S5, and S6.
On the other hand, the event that determination is made in step S5 that the position on the clip #1 corresponding to the end position of the sub-clip #2 exists between the start position to the end position of the clip #1, the flow proceeds to step S7, where the editing apparatus takes a section on the clip #1 from the in point to a point of the clip #1 corresponding to the end position of the sub-clip #2, i.e., a section from the in point to a position therefrom equivalent to the length of the sub-clip #2, as the editing section, and overwrites this editing section with the sub-clip #2. Thus, the editing apparatus performs Insert Edit shown in FIG. 1C, by performing the processing of steps S1, S3, S5, and S7.
Now, in recent years, there are cases wherein metadata (e.g., electronic marks indicating characters of video) indicating the contents or characteristics of video are recorded along with the video in the recording medium. In this case, the editing apparatus needs to process the metadata when editing.
Accordingly, there is known a moving picture managing apparatus which, in the event that operations such as editing are performed regarding a part or all of moving pictures to which metadata has been applied, records information relating to the possibility that the metadata might become invalid, thereby easily rectifying the metadata so as to be useful following editing. An example of such an apparatus is described in US Published Patent Application No. 2005/0027745.
Also, there is known an apparatus which, in the event that a recorded region is overwritten by other video/audio data, index information corresponding to the overwritten video/audio data and index information corresponding to the other regions divided by the video/audio data which is overwritten on the overwritten region are generated. An example of such an apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,775,466.
On the other hand, there is known an apparatus which is capable of editing index information for specifying thumbnail images which aid in editing. An example of such an apparatus is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-174043.
Note that index information is a basic sort of structure description metadata describing the way in which a program is structured, based on the contents thereof, such as TOC (Table of Contents) data of a program, for satisfying requests to access certain positions of video or programs recorded in a recording medium speedily.
This structure description metadata is not only used for access desired positions at high speeds as with a TOC, but also is used for auto-generating and transmitting sample clips or customized programs according to user requests, realizing partial access right control of programs, and so-called authoring wherein completed packets are copied to packaged media.
Various methods have been conceived for generating such structure description metadata, as described in US Published Patent Application Nos. 2002/0199204 and 2005/0149557.
On the other hand, in recent years, various methods have been conceived for detecting cut points, representing positions where scenes in the video switch, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,643, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-339051.